YAMAHA has discovered new materials.

With the wealth of knowledge that YAMAHA has amassed through the decades as the preeminent maker of musical instruments, YAMAHA’s wood specialists have discovered new materials that provide optimal drum performance.

Jatoba, a Brazilian wood and the hardest material in the PHX hybrid shell, is positioned as the core ply and center note of the drum. It is surrounded on either side by layers of kapur, a Malaysian hard wood. North American Maple, which had long been considered a classic, high-quality drum shell material because of its hardness and viscosity, is actually the softest wood in the shell construction; maple is the outer and inner plies of the shell.

This is the process used to complete the hybrid shell, in which the stiffness of the shell shifts from the center toward the outside: the woods are hardest at the center and get softer toward the outer surfaces in either direction. This results in an “excitation structure” that maximizes the shell’s performance. The excitation structure increases the head’s vibration to its full extent, achieving a sound unlike anything you’ve heard before. It produces an effect in sound waves similar to rippling waves caused by a pebble dropped in water.

Hybrid Shell Construction

Place of Origin

Frequency Analysis of PHX BD vs Maple Custom Absolute BD

The newly evolved YESSII shell mounting system acts as a shock mount system for the drum, allowing for optimal shell vibration.

Utilizing a unique rubber insert and a maple wood plate, the YESSII mount is primarily located at the nodal points (where no vibration occurs), causing the resonance to stay, within the shell as opposed to transferring through the hardware and being stifled.

In larger tom sizes, the rubber inserts are also positioned on the shell where overtones are present to help produce the appropriate mixture of sustain and overtone control.

The brand-new drum-lug design which was an innovation in Hook Lug system.

The brand-new Hook Lug system has emerged through the progression of the Nouveau Lug, which was an innovation in drum-lug design. This new lug minimizes the rotation of the lug casing during tuning and firmly supports the tuning bolt through the wide and straight post, even at high tension.

Rather than positioning the Hook Lug at the nodal point, YAMAHA placed it at the area of the shell that produces undesirable overtones, thus muting them and allowing for an unobstructed, richer fundamental tone.

The combination of the Hook Lug system (muting the unattractive overtones) and the YESSII mount system (opening up the drum’s fundamental tone) provides an unmistakably pure and naturally EQ’d sound. The organic tone of each drum is clear and perfectly defined like never before.

The brand-new drum-lug design which was an innovation in Hook Lug system.To control the drum’s tone and articulation, PHX floor tom, tom-tom and bass drum shells each use different types of bearing edges. All bearing edge angles are set at 30-degrees. However, the radiuses of the bearing edges differ to gain optimum acoustic performance from the shell. Additionally, a secret treatment process is used to ensure that each edge is finished to a perfect smoothness. This guarantees a very easy and wide tuning range.

Bass Drum

Floor Tom

Tom Tom

The number of vent holes influences both the drum’s timbre and projection. PHX Series drums are designed with one to ten vent holes, depending upon the drum’s dimensions. By varying the number of holes, particularly on larger shells, the drum’s sustain length, amount of mid-bass tone, and playing comfort can all be fine-tuned.